Israel Dismisses Talk of Recognizing Kosovo

Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman declared on Tuesday in Tirana that Israel will not recognize Kosovo’s independence until all EU states have done so.

Gjergj Erebara

Tirana

Avigdor Lieberman | Photo by Saema/Flickr

“We will recognize it only after Spain, Greece and Cyprus,” Lieberman said in the course of a two-day visit in Tirana, lobbing against a possible vote by Albania in favour of Palestinian statehood at the UN in September.

Lieberman is the first Israeli foreign minister to visit Albania in 17 years, and his visit is part of a diplomatic push by Israel, which is trying to get as many countries as it can to publicly oppose the Palestinian move.

Since Kosovo declared independence in 2008, the United States and 22 of the 27 EU member countries have recognised the former Serbian province. But Serbia, supported by Russia, has firmly rejected the move and some powerful countries, including China, have also not recognised it.

Five EU member states, Spain, Slovakia, Cyprus, Greece and Romania, are all firmly opposed to recognition, either out of sympathy with Serbia or because they have secessionist problems of their own.

Kosovo needs a two-thirds majority of the United Nation’s 192 member states in the General Assembly and approval from the Security Council to take its seat in the UN.

Albania maintains that Kosovo’s case is sui generis. It has not yet made it clear how it will vote at the forthcoming vote at the UN on Palestine.